Escape and Suspense!

The Tell-Tale Heart

Suspense never chose to present an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," but some other notable radio programs did, with good results.

The challenge of presenting "The Tell-Tale Heart" on radio is obvious. The original short story is so brief that there isn't enough material for a half hour show. Still, Inner Sanctum Mysteries, The Weird Circle and The Hall of Fantasy all took a crack at reworking Poes' masterpiece.

All three shows lengthened and changed the story, but retained the essential components of Poe's work. The result was three unique versions of "The Tell-Tale Heart." Each one oddly different from the other.

The original "The Tell-Tale Heart" is available at www.poestories.com and many other places on the Internet. A recording of Poe's story being read aloud, which takes about 18 minutes, is available at http://librivox.org. 

Read "The Tell-Tale Heart' again and then listen to these imaginitive radio adaptations:

Inner Sanctum's version strayed the farthest from the original story, but Boris Karloff's performance made it worthwhile. This episode aired on August 3, 1941. (Their version has the added entertainment, or distraction, of commercials for Carter's Little Liver Pills.)

.  Download isan.1941.08.03_Tell_Tale_Heart,_The.mp3

The Weird Circle's modernized version is tense and strange, but excellent. They presented "The Tell-Tale Heart" on January 30, 1944.

.  Download weir.1944.01.30_Tell_Tale_Heart.mp3

The Hall of Fantasy presented their version, a gripping one, on June 1, 1953. The story was adapted for radio by Richard Thorn.

.  Download hfan.1953.06.01_The_Tell-Tale_Heart.mp3

(Image of Edgar Allan Poe from Wikipedia)

Suspense - Fugue in C Minor

"Fugue in C Minor" is the kind of radio horror that only Lucille Fletcher could write. As the Suspense announcer tells us at the beginning, this is a story of "brooding anxiety and sharpening suspicion, played against the severe and forbidding background of the late Victorian era." In this episode, two small children believe that their father, an organist, has killed their mother and hidden her body within the pipes of the organ in their home.

The story begins in April of 1900 in an east coast town called Pilotsville. Amanda Peabody is introduced by her sister to a handsome widower named Mr. Theodore Evans. He and his two children live in a home that was built around a colossal pipe organ. Amanda and Theodore's mutual love of classical music brings them together, but his strange, little children stand in the way of their happiness.

"Fugue in C Minor" was written by Lucille Fletcher and was produced/directed by William Spier. The title refers to the musical composition for organ by Johann Sebastian Bach. It is interesting to note that Suspense actor and announcer Joseph Kearns, "The Man in Black," really did have a home that was built around a Wurlitzer pipe organ. He unfortunately doesn't appear in this episode.

Vincent Price starred as Theodore Evans and Ida Lupino as Amanda Peabody. Bea Benaderet also appeared. This episode aired on June 1, 1944.

.  Download Suspense.1944.06.01_Fugue_In_C_Minor.mp3

(Image of the Passacaglia from Fugue in C Minor from Wikipedia)

Suspense - The Death of Alexander Jordan

"The Death of Alexander Jordan" is set in the mid-Twentieth century, but it is rooted in the fear of premature burial that was prevalent in Europe and America in the Victorian era. When this story first aired on the radio in 1944 on Creeps by Night, there would have been many listeners old enough to have heard the macabre Victorian tales of premature burial referred to in this story.

This episode begins with a man named Ramsey and his wife Martha. They work on the farm of his uncle, Alexander Jordon. Ramsey is a brute and Martha is long suffering. Uncle Alexander, at age 82, is now on his deathbed and he admits that he is haunted by the stories he heard in his childhood about people being buried alive. He asks that his coffin be equipped inside with an electric buzzer. Should he awake, the buzzer will ring a bell back at the farmhouse. 

Shortly afterwards, Uncle Alex does die and before the first night is over, the bell does go off. Ramsey goes down to the family crypt to see if Uncle Alex has returned from the dead. Not because he loves his uncle, but because he is determined to sell the farm and move back to the city as soon as possible.

The electric buzzer in the coffin is a modern twist on the "safety coffin" of the 19th century.  These special caskets were equipped with gadgets that worked as alarms in case of premature burial. One of the more notable safety coffins from the Victorian era was the Bateson Belfry Coffin. This casket was outfitted with a bell on its top, above the head of the deceased. A cord placed in the hand of the deceased connected to the bell. Caskets with similar safety features are still manufactured.

Although the announcer states that the radioplay for "The Death of Alexander Jordan" was written by Hector Chevigny for Suspense, it first appeared on the short-lived 1944 radio show Creeps by Night under the title "The Strange Death of Alexander Jordan." This episode starred Connie Lempke, William Mason, Paul McGrath and Edgar Stelhi.  It aired on September 2, 1962.

.   Download suspense.1962.09.02_ DeathOfAlexanderJordan.mp3

Here is another show from the 1940's about a safety coffin from the series Murder at Midnight. This story, "The Line is Dead," is about a man who has already been buried alive once, so he puts a telephone in his coffin in case it happens again.

.  Download mamn.1947.04.07_The_Line_Is_Dead.mp3

(Image from coffin bell from Wikimedia Commons. Image of Antoine Wertz's The Premature Burial from Wikimedia Commons)

Suspense - Neil Cream, Doctor of Poison

The true story of Dr. Neil Cream is so ghastly that it is surprising that Suspense tried to dramatize it. Bringing the Victorian horror story of the "Doctor of Poison" to the airwaves required that it be pared down considerably for a general audience. Their version does not mention the nightmarish botched abortions he performed nor the prostitutes he poisoned.

Suspense retained only the basic components that made the story unique and left the rest out. Their version is that of a man who had no remorse about poisoning women, but who is ultimately done in by his own manipulativeness and arrogance. The strength of this episode lies in the performances of the actors and the well written narrative.

Suspense also chose not to mention that Neil Cream is considered by some to have been Jack-the-Ripper. The problem with that theory is that Dr. Cream was serving time for murder in Joliet Prison in Illinois when the Ripper crimes occurred. After his release from Joliet in 1891, Dr. Cream left America for England and quickly took up his old ways. He was finally caught and sentenced to execution in 1892. Just before he was hanged, Dr. Cream is said to have admitted, "I am Jack..." One theory as to how this could be possible proposes that he had a double who committed the Ripper murders.

This story aired once on September 17, 1951, and starred Oscar winner Charles Laughton in one of his ten appearances on Suspense. Charles Davis, Jeannette Nolan, Joseph Kearns, Betty Hartford, Georgia Ellis, Alma Lawton and Herbert Butterfield also appear. The radioplay was written for Suspense by Antony Ellis. "Neil Cream, Doctor of Poison" was produced and directed by Elliott Lewis.

.  Download NeilCreamDoctorofPoison.9.17.1951mp3.mp3

Suspense presented the same radioplay again in 1955 under the title, "A Story of Poison."  This time Joseph Kearns played Dr. Cream and the show was produced and directed by Antony Ellis. This episode aired on September 13, 1955.

.  Download Suspense_1955.09.13_AStoryOfPoison.mp3

(Revised 9/20/07)

Suspense - The Body Snatchers

Suspense's "The Body Snatchers" is a light-hearted drama, but the true history on which it is based is dark and gruesome. The story is set in the early 19th century when the legal supply of human bodies for medical research in Britain was limited only to criminals given the death penalty. This supply was insufficient for the number of medical students who needed cadavers for dissection and the difference was made up by "body-snatching", the illegal disinterment and sale of the dead. Those who dug up bodies after burial and sold them off for a profit were known as "Resurrectionists" or "Resurrection Men."

As a result, families who lost a loved one had to attend to keeping that loved one buried. In response, there sprang up an industry to deal with graveyard crime. Specialty items like lead coffins, locks, vaults, grills, and mortsafes helped to deter robbers. It also led to fancier cemeteries for the middle class like Highgate Cemetery in London (pictured), which was one of the "Magnificent Seven."

When dead bodies weren't available some resurrectionists committed murder for profit. The West Port Murders by William Burke and William Hare in 1827-1828 in Scotland, as well as the crimes of John Bishop and Thomas Williams (the London Burkers), created a public outcry for change. In 1831 Bishop and Williams were sentenced, executed, and then dissected for study.

The Anatomy Act of 1832 altered the laws and increased the number of bodies available, thereby diminishing the need for body-snatching. The new Act stated that destitute people, with no relatives, who died while in the workhouses could be given over to medical schools. As a result however, the greatly feared public workhouses became even more terrifying in that, if you died there, you could end up being dissected in an anatomy clinic.

Today, the illegal sales of corpses and body parts continues to be a lucrative industry in America.

"The Body Snatchers" was for written for Suspense by John Dickson Carr and aired on November 24, 1942.

Download Suspense_1942-11-24_The_Body_Snatchers.mp3

(Photo of Highgate Cemetery from Morguefile.com)

Suspense - (Forecast) The Lodger

How did the radio show Suspense begin?

It first appeared on a CBS program called Forecast, which presented the pilot episodes of new shows. Forecast aired Suspense: "The Lodger" on July 22, 1940. The radio-play was based on the novel by Marie Belloc Lowndes, as well as many other tales of mysterious lodgers who may have been Jack-the-Ripper.

The premier episode was directed by Alfred Hitchcock, who had previously filmed The Lodger in 1927. Edmund Gwenn and Herbert Marshall were working with Hitchcock on the movie Foreign Correspondent when they appeared on this program. "The Lodger" is a unique Suspense episode because it was performed in front of a studio audience.

Although the response was good, it would be another two years until Suspense became a regular series on CBS. Once it was established in 1942, the show went on to run for twenty years! For more information about the first episode of Suspense and the show's association with Alfred Hitchcock, read "Murder and Suspense: Hitchcock's Established Reputation" by Martin Grams.

Herbert Marshall stars as Mr. Sleuth and Edmund Gwenn stars as Mr. Bunting. This episode also features Noreen Gammill, Joseph Kearns and Lurene Tuttle. Alfred Hitchcock makes an appearance at the end of the show.

Download Forecast-The_Lodger-Suspense_audition_40-07-22_CBS_.mp3

To watch a video clip of Hitchock's The Lodger see: Suspense - The Lodger (First Episode)

(Rev. 02/18/08)

Escape-The Vanishing Lady

"The Vanishing Lady" is an old urban legend about an international conspiracy at a World's Fair. It is also known as "The Vanishing Hotel Room."

The setting is the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris.  In this urban legend, an Englishwoman and her daughter stop in Paris on their way from India to England. The mother becomes ill shortly after they arrive and the hotel doctor sends the daughter out for medicine. When she returns, her mother has vanished!

Escape dramatized this Victorian horror legend with only a few changes. Their version is taken from the story published by author/critic Alexander Woollcott in his book While Rome Burns in 1934. Woollcott was himself a bit of a horror legend for dying onstage during a radio show, but he is best remembered as the inspiration for the character of Sheridan Whiteside from the play and movie The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942).

In the urban legend the daughter goes insane as a result of the conspiracy and ends up in a British mental hospital, but Escape's version has an odd ending that leaves you wondering what happens next.

"The Vanishing Lady" was also done for an episode of the television show Alfred Hitchcock Presents under the title "Into Thin Air". It has also appeared in novels and movies.

This episode stars Joan Banks and Hy Averback in the lead roles. It was broadcast on February 1, 1948, and repeated on January 10, 1950.

Download Escape.1948.02.01_Vanishing_Lady.mp3

Suspense only presented the original legend of "The Vanishing Lady" once. They recycled the same radio-play that Escape had used in 1948 but shortened it considerably. Instead of playing the story out, the announcer talks us through the history of the legend. Alexander Woollcott's thoughts on the subject are also discussed. The radio-play was based on Woolcott's 1934 short story and adapted for Suspense by William N. Robson. On the whole, Escape's was the better presentation.

Suspense's "The Vanishing Lady" starred Edgar Barrier, Diana Bourbon, Vanessa Brown and John Dehner. it aired on April 7, 1957.

Download suspense.1957.04.07.The_ Vanishing_ Lady.mp3

(Rev. 11/27/07)